


Liar

by hoppnhorn



Series: Harringrove Bits & Pieces [10]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Bounty Hunters, Fugitives, M/M, bounty hunter AU, bounty hunter!steve, fugitive!billy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 09:18:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13761012
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoppnhorn/pseuds/hoppnhorn
Summary: Steve crouches down low and holds his breath, willing his pulse to return to something more controlled. He’s been through this, how in the world was this fugitive any different? Oh, because it was Billy. Billy Hargrove.





	Liar

He can smell some kind of cologne, so he knows the guy is close. He feels like one of those idiots in khaki’s on animal planet, stalking some kind of animal in the dark. Because that’s exactly what he’s doing. He’s slipping into a dark motel room, aware of the fact that his prey is most likely waiting for him.

Steve crouches down low and holds his breath, willing his pulse to return to something more controlled. He’s been through this, how in the world was this fugitive any different?

Oh, because it was Billy. Billy Hargrove, the guy who’d kicked the snot out of him in high school. Billy Hargrove, the guy who’d teased him for weeks about the bruises he’d put there.

Billy Hargrove, the guy he’d pinned against a wall outside a 7-Eleven and fucked boneless on the eve of graduation.

Yeah. That’s why this was different. They had history. As brief a history as it was, it was a history. One night; one intense, incredible night and history was made.

“I know you’re in here, Hargrove.” Steve growls into the dark, moving softly on the shitty motel carpet. Dustin keeps telling him to buy “ _Night vision goggles, so you can chase criminals in the dark. You never know, Steve.”_  but here he is, without the expensive goggles he’d once deemed unnecessary. “Come in quietly and this will go a lot easier.”

_“You think I care if this is easy?”_

Billy’s voice seems to come from everywhere and Steve presses his back to the wall, holds his breath to keep from gasping. Hargrove’s voice is deeper than he’d remembered but it tickles the back of his mind, eliciting all sorts of memories. Memories of Billy cursing and groaning his name.

“You should.” Steve slinks into the main room, goes for a corner to keep his back covered. If he can figure out where Billy is, he can come up with a plan to box him in. Keep him talking. “I haven’t had to shoot anyone in a while, but I know how.”

There isn’t a reply and Steve mentally curses himself.

“You keep running like this, Hargrove, and someone will catch you. Might not be someone as friendly as me.” Steve slides along the wall. “There are bounties out for you all over the midwest. Some of these idiots won’t even care if you’re unarmed. They’ll put a bullet in you and no one will blink.” He pauses and sinks down the wall a little, his legs burning as the flex to hold his weight. “Then Max will have to bury you. She’ll be alone in the world. Do you want that?”

_“Max can take care of herself. Leave her outta this, Harrington.”_

Steve grins. He’s in the bathroom, using the acoustics to throw off his location. Steve moves fast and crosses the room in silence. Back up against another wall, he listens.

“Why do you think I’m here, Hargrove? She’s worried about you. Her mother and your father are both dead. The kid’s alone in the world.”

He jumps out of his hiding place and rushes the bathroom, his gun raised. He never loads the damn thing, because the one time he did Dustin nearly shot him in the dick. That was all it took to scare Steve off of guns for the rest of his career; but criminals like Billy respond to guns.

He flips the light and the room is flooded in a pale yellow glow. It reveals an empty tub, a lime-green toilet, and a tiled floor that has seen better days…decades ago.

What it doesn’t reveal is Billy. Not until Steve’s gun is being ripped out of his hand by a strong grip.

He turns and clenches a fist, ready to sock Billy in the jaw. He’s learned a thing or two about self-defense since he and Hargrove had gone toe-to-toe in the Byers house. He’s put down larger men with his bare hands, thanks to his quick reflexes and fearlessness. As he arcs his body to land a solid, left hook, Steve remembers something critical.

Billy is faster.

His fist is avoided by a dimly lit figure before Steve is suddenly being hauled off the floor and bulldozed across the bathroom. Colliding with the tiled wall of the tub with a grimace, Steve finally gets a good look at his prey.

Billy looks tired. His eyes are shadowed, cheeks a little hollow, and his once long, curly blond hair is buzzed to the skull. It makes something inside of Steve ache for the guy while his spine aches from Billy crushing him against the wall. In a swift, unforgiving motion, Billy grabs Steve’s wrist and clamps something cold around it.

“What-”

Cuffs. Handcuffs.

Billy slaps the other side to the shower rod with a huff. Then he lets go. Steps out of the tub. Steve’s stomach falls as he pulls on the things, realizes he’s so fucked.

“She’s terrified for you.” Steve snarls. “Do you even care, Hargrove? Huh? Do you give a shit that you’re making her worry about you?”

Billy smirks and it’s nasty and ugly and Steve shrinks away a little as his stomach turns cold. The guy he’d known, the boy he’d deflowered behind a gas station, wasn’t the man standing before him.

“I won’t go back.” Billy hisses, his voice steely and even. Controlled. Steve doesn’t know why that frightens him. “I won’t pay for a crime I didn’t commit.”

Steve swallows back a hundred questions and shakes his head.

“If you’re innocent, this isn’t the way to clear your name.” He snarls. “This is how you get shot and wind up a sad little statistic in the paper.”

Billy scoffs and one end of his lip curls.

“You almost sound like you care, Harrington.”

Steve tugs on the handcuffs and leans into Billy, unable to get close enough to be intimidating but close enough that he can see the surprised rise of Billy’s brow.

“I care about Max, you fucking idiot.” He snaps. “And  _bizarrely enough_ , she cares about you. She  _begged_  me to fly here and find you so that maybe you’d come peacefully and not wind up in a body bag.” Billy’s eyes dart from Steve’s left eye to his right, as if he’s sorting out whether or not he’s lying. Steve tugs on the handcuffs again. “Uncuff me. Let me take you in. Then maybe I can help you get a better lawyer-”

“That shit is all rigged.” Billy cuts him off with a growl. “I went away at eighteen for a murder I didn’t commit, Harrington. I tried to tell them. I begged for someone to believe me. No one did.  _Not even you_.”

Steve sags, letting his frown slip from his face ever so slightly.

He remembers. He remembers the night Billy had shown up at his doorstep in the rain. He’d been soaking wet, frightened, bleeding, talking a mile a minute, and saying he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know where to go.

Steve had patched him up. Listened to Billy’s drunken blabbering, his terrified babble. He’d listened and bit by bit, his heart had broken.

_I think…I think he’s dead, Harrington. Jesus I think he’s dead._

“I didn’t know what to think.” Steve finally murmurs, eighteen-year-old Billy’s voice echoing in his head. “You were drunk and high and I was scared-”

“You fed me to the wolves.” Billy growls, leaning in so close that Steve realizes Billy has made a mistake. Steve can reach out, wrap his arm around Billy’s neck, and probably choke him unconscious. He’s not as strong as Billy, maybe, but he has the element of surprise. Yet he doesn’t move. He doesn’t flinch away. Steve just stares. Stares into the flat, blue eyes in front of him. Eyes that had once sparkled in the darkness. Sparkled for him. “I came to you and you called the cops.”

“I called Hopper.” Steve corrects softly. “He’s my friend.”

“He’s a cop, Harrington. And the cops are in on this. If anyone would  _get that_ it would be you.” Billy shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter now.” Reaching over, he grabs a leather jacket off of the countertop, slipping his arms into the sleeves. “I’m sure someone will be around to clean the room tomorrow morning.”

“Billy.” He leans as far out of the tub as he can, searching for those blue eyes. “I don’t want you to end up killed.”

The guy’s shoulders slump and Steve wets his lips as hope fills his chest. “You say that the cops are in on it. That you were set up.”

“I’m not just saying it. I have  _proof_. I’m going to find out why this happened to me and I’m going to make who did this pay.” Billy’s voice sends chills over Steve’s skin and he  _knows_. He knows that he means it.

“I believe you.”

Billy stops in the doorframe, puts a hand out on the trim.

“Don’t do that.”

“I do.” Steve slides the cuff on the rod, moves so he can see the side of Billy’s face. “Come here and tell me I’m lying.”

Billy glances over his shoulder and Steve tenses. He can’t lose Billy now after chasing him for days. One night of being handcuffed in a shower and Billy Hargrove would be out of his reach. And Steve would be out the two grand he’d already spent trying to find him. He’d never see the ten grand for bringing him in.

“Come on.” Steve calls to him. “Look me in the eye and tell me I’m a liar.”

Billy slowly pivots on a heel and takes a step closer. Then another. Steve’s pulse pushes hard against his neck when Billy steps into his space. The air he breathes is all Billy. Spicy and hot and Billy.

“Say it.” Billy commands.

“I believe you.” Steve repeats, his heart throbbing in his chest.

He doesn’t. He believes what Hopper had told him almost twelve years ago. He believes the photos and the evidence and the witnesses who say Billy Hargrove beat a man to death outside a liquor store. He believes that Billy  _wants_  to believe he’s innocent. He also believes that he will only get that ten grand bounty if he lies.

Billy stares him down for what feels like a solid ten minutes, eyes unwavering  before he finally shakes his head. Once.

“No, you don’t.” Steve deflates. But before he can argue the contrary and lie again, Billy reaches out and grabs him by the jaw, planting one, dry, heavy kiss on his lips. It lingers. Steve lets it.

When the warm contact is gone, Steve opens his eyes, which he didn’t remember closing in the first place. Billy is reaching over his head and unlocking the shackle on his wrist.

The moment he’s free, Steve takes a step back and flattens his back to the wall.

“Why?” He asks, breathless. Billy shakes his head and lifts one shoulder. And for a moment, Steve sees the boy he knew. The spark of crazy that had drawn him like a flame.

“If I can’t convince you. I won’t convince anyone.”

Steve processes then boldly walks forward, stepping out of the tub.

“Convince?”

“You’re gonna give me 48 hours.” Billy says, his eyes pleading despite the command in his voice. “If I can’t convince you I’m innocent in 48 hours, then I’ll go back with you. No trouble.”

Steve grinds his molars as he thinks it over.

“What’ll stop you from just ditching me again later?” He asks. Billy snorts.

“My word.” This time it’s Steve that scoffs, but Billy leans in close. “Look in my eyes, Harrington. And call me a liar.”

Steve does. He looks long and hard and sees nothing but grey-blue glass staring back at him. _Liar._

“Fine.” He murmurs. “48 hours.”

Billy nods and leaves the bathroom, flicking on a light to the motel room. Steve stares after him, heart in his throat. He has 48 hours.

Then he’s going to bring in Billy Hargrove.


End file.
